Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Sky High

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Sky High is a supernatural action film by director Ryuhei Kitamara(Versus, Azumi). When Detective Kanzakit Kohei's(Shosuke Tanihara) fiance, Mina, is murdered moments before there wedding, he becomes obsessed with finding the killer and unleashing vengeance upon him. Meanwhile, Mina is at the Gate of Rage, given the choice of being reborn, becoming a ghost, or cursing someone and condemning herself to hell. She is given 12 days to decide.
While watching this film, I was very taken with the concept, the idea of Mina having to face these difficult choices while following her boyfriend as he descends deeper into rage. The main problem with this film is that it eventually becomes too self-righteous and destroys the impact of the plot. Great concern is taken for souls of the main characters, but not for the supporting characters. Also, the non-violence theme ends up being ridiculous, especially when the entire world ends up being threatened. As I was growing up, I always loved heroes that faced difficult situations and had to do what no one else had the courage to do. None of the main characters in this film felt like a hero...and in the end the whole thing just ended up feeling contrived and undeveloped. I would have appreciated a deeper exploration of the themes used in this film, but instead I'm given a bubble gum wrap-up.
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Most fantasy films have unrealistic elements to them, however, they somehow succeed in making us believe them, or at least suspending belief. This film fails at achieving this. When a character does something impossible it is so blatant and ludicrous that it destroys all of our willingness to suspend belief. The director of this film did a much better job on Azumi, which I strongly suggest over this broken-yet-fluffy idealistic film. I give it 3 out of 10.
Rent this OR AZUMI on Netflix!Netflix, Inc.

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